EU will study in the next few hours to remove Russia from the Swift system

The French Economy Minister, Bruno Le Maire, has announced that the European Union will study “in the next few hours” the possible blockade to Russia of the international system of payments and banking data Swift.

Using Swift”is the financial nuclear weapon”, since it allows Russian financial institutions to be blocked from accessing transactions with the rest of the world, Le Maire said after a meeting of EU economy and finance ministers on the economic consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Belgium-based Swift is a platform that connects some 11,000 financial institutions around the world and functions as a messaging system for reporting financial transactions, making it a fundamental pillar of the international financial system.

Swift’s blockade was not included in the first sanctions package agreed last night by an emergency summit of EU leaders.

Le Maire acknowledged that activating Swift’s lock had generated “Bookings” among some EU Member States, which he did not want to identify, but not in France, that “has no reluctance“, given that “Russia has already exceeded all limits long ago”.

France, as the country that holds the rotating presidency of the EU, must “take into account these reservations”, but stressed that “there must be a European consensus” to approve this measure.

He explained that the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) “They are going to present us with a more accurate assessment of the consequences of preventing access to Russia’s Swift.” and warned: “We’ll see what happens in the next few hours.”.